Magic Needles Magic Knife

by Ponder Woodcock

Cairo, The Conqueror, City of Cities, has been the horizon of a thousand minarets for as long as human history remembers, and yet, unbeknownst to them, humanity is the newcomer here. Below and beside, beset and beguiled, the ancient, supernatural denizens of Cairo lurk in secret side streets where the rules of reality are written sloppily and in pencil.

Tagi Alnoor Abdelaziz, a discontented office employee who longs to escape the confines of…well, everything, is pulled into Cairo's magical underbelly while seeking an assassin to kill his boss. Instead, a telepathic cat offers him a new, and probably impossible, job opportunity: unlearn normality and break a thousand-year curse before those trapped in it unravel the fabric of existence. Joined by an apathetic fire demon and sentient graffiti, Tagi begins a descent, ascent, and side-cent into Cairo's impossible, improbable, and impractical secret world. Will he transcend the limits of reality? Or be consumed by what lurks beyond it?

390 pages, Paperback

Published February 8, 2023

About the author

I write novels, poetry, and very short book reviews. My bizarre and indulgent debut novel, an urban fantasy set in Cairo, is named Magic Needles Magic Knife. I also have a poetry book called Once Yearling and a little poetry chapbook named Roots Water Concrete. I'm currently working on a YA fantasy trilogy.
Have a nice day!

Reviews

[Jesse · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delight from start to finish, written with enduring affection for an adopted city which damn well might adopt back! If you're not careful, one of the myriad strands leaping from the pages could easily lassoo *you* on down some far flung road and Cairo would just be the start of it.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a remarkable piece of work, a delightful read, and a wild ride! Brice has composed a book that weaved together all of his best influences from Tolkien to Oscar Wilde, and when combined with his brilliant visionary mind, creates a world simultaneously rooted in Cairo, a city that he clearly loves so very much, as well as the mind of the reader, as he takes you on a journey through his main character, Tagi. The book is a scathing commentary on the social conventions of daily work life and a celebration of what can happen when people (and other things: cats, paintings, graffiti, etc.) are pushed beyond the limits of their existence.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

2nd time reading, and it was a pleasure once again. Sprawling, imaginative, wacky, and philosophical, it impresses upon me the sheer undertaking that writing a novel must be, but also the lightness with which it could be possible to embark on such an adventure. Long yes, but arduous? Maybe not if you can manage to have this much fun and invest it with this much care and individuality, never forgetting at every turn to make it your own. It's pretty cool that books exist, and very inspiring that this is now one of them. Bravo!